I tuned the twins out as I walked, ignoring whatever they were saying, not even caring that I led them directly to my small apartment building, though they weren’t able to come inside – they didn’t have the access code to enter the building itself.  Back in my apartment, I sighed, then began packing.

Within a few short hours, I managed to pack everything I owned, then addressed it to a storage unit owned by an acquaintance that kept it just for situations like this.  In a few years, if it was safe, I’d go and retrieve them.

Before I taped up the last box, I made a call to Bruce.

“They suspect too much,” I said as soon as he picked up.  “They can’t prove anything, but they definitely suspect.  I’m leaving as soon as it’s dark.  I’ll head down there but probably will stay aquatic for a while, just in case they try looking for me nearby.”

“I’m sorry, Morgan,” Bruce’s voice was sympathetic.  “I know you haven’t had that new life long.”

A couple of years, not really that long at all.  But I’d been enjoying it, and he was right, it wasn’t particularly fun having to drop it all and start over.

“See you in a day or two,” I told him.  Then I powered off the phone, tossed it in the box, and taped it up.  That done, I labeled the boxes, using the business office in the downstairs of the apartment building to purchase and print off postage as well.  Next was placing all the boxes – five boxes, not really that many to contain my life for a couple years – in the mail room so they’d be taken when the next delivery came, which was…20 minutes, according to the clock.  Perfect.

After that, all I had to do was wait.  Wait and watch out the window as it started to rain, something which I found useful for my planned escape.  Rain meant easier cover, bigger waves, much less likelihood that anyone would see me slip into the ocean and disappear.  If they did, well, they’d just assume I drowned.

A little while after night fell, when it was extra dark outside and I felt reasonably sure no one should be out in this weather, I headed out.  I looked carefully outside my apartment building before leaving, making sure that neither of the twins was nearby to see me.  Then, head down and arms folded across my chest, I walked as swiftly as I could towards the beach.

No one was out on the beach at this time of night, in almost-stormy weather, which made sense.  No one but me, who quickly took off my shoes, dumped them in a trash can, and then started down the pier to get closer to the deep water.

At the end of the pier, I glanced around, again making sure no one was nearby, then dove in.

Water hit my body, surrounded me, and I took a deep breath, allowing my lungs to fill.  Instantly, my body began to change.  I squirmed out of the remnants of my clothing as my body from my neck down became covered with scales, gills formed along my neck, and my legs melded into one to become a tail.

Mermaid, as we were called in fairy tales.  Oceanid, as we call ourselves.  One of more than a dozen varieties of merfolk, supernaturals who relied on and existed in large bodies of water.  I was an oceanid, but Bruce was an aquatic shifter, capable of turning himself into an orca.  We were both considered merfolk, just different varieties.

Back in the salty waters of my true home, I took a deep breath, relishing the scents and tastes of the ocean, then struck out for deep water, intent on leaving my past behind me.

But apparently, my past didn’t want that.

I wasn’t out that deep, not even a mile, when I could hear the echo of voices from the surface, voices calling – screaming, even – struggling against the sounds of the increasing storm.

I surfaced just enough to have my eyes and ears above the water, invisible amongst the waves, to find the source of the noise.  If someone was drowning, I would help them.  I wasn’t that cold.

Only, it wasn’t someone drowning.  It was the twins.  I didn’t know if they had rented, borrowed, or just flat-out stole the boat, but they were in a small motorboat and were headed straight out to sea, Vance at the motor looking pale and terrified while Hayden was screaming my name into the storm.

Had they seen me, after all?  They seemed sure I was in the water.  I thought I’d taken care to avoid them, but maybe they had followed me further back than I’d realized.  Far enough back to see when I’d jumped into the water and hadn’t surfaced.

Idiots, I thought, but not without some warmth.  They cared, even if they didn’t know for sure I was the same Morgan.  Even if it had been 10 years, even if they didn’t have any answers.  They still cared enough that they were risking their lives to look for me in a storm on the ocean.

Oh, hang on – that was bad.  Really bad, actually.  They were headed further out to sea, where the boat couldn’t handle, and that was even in normal waters, not heavy waves and storming skies.  They needed to turn back, now.

I submerged and swam after the boat, trying to figure out the best way to stop it.  I could just throw myself into the motor, but besides the damage to me, that might just end up with them stranded out at sea without a way back to shore.  I might be able to turn the boat around, but they’d just keep trying to turn around and go further out.  What if I surfaced closer to the shore and called out?  No, that wouldn’t work – hearing me call out would give them more hope and then they’d keep looking, still, until they found me, drowned themselves, or involved the whole town in a manhunt for a person who didn’t exist anymore.  I couldn’t risk that.

They were getting a lot further out than they should be, and it was only a matter of time before they themselves were in life-threatening danger.  Didn’t they realize that?  Were they really thinking they could find someone in an entire ocean?  Did they not realize that small boat couldn’t handle these waves?

I dove down, grabbed a long strand of kelp, then rose up again and swam quickly after the boat, attempting to reach it and use the kelp to stop the motor, when something happened.

They must have hit a wave too large for the boat to handle.  I could see it, from underneath, twist and buckle and then water rushed over the top, knocking one of the twins overboard while the other barely managed to hang on.

Hayden, I realized, was now in the water while Vance, clutching the now-choked engine, was frantically searching the waters and calling for his brother.  Hayden, meanwhile, was struggling to keep his head above water, the rain and the waves working against him.

I cursed.  This was about the worst situation I could think of, but even if these had been strangers, I wouldn’t have let them drown.  And especially not the two people I cared most about in this world.

Hayden went down again, fighting for the surface.  It was dark underwater, and while my eyes were adjusted to see things even in the deep sea, his were not, so…I swam right up to him, grabbed a fistful of his jacket, and practically threw him at the boat.

Hayden gasped and looked around, but his hands closed on the edge of the boat and Vance grabbed at him, pulling him in.

“Oh thank goodness!”  Vance looked like he was probably crying in relief, but with all the rain, it was impossible to tell if it was tears, water from the waves, or rain.  “We need to just get back – but I can’t even get the motor started!”

Hayden was looking back at the waves, like he expected to see something – someone.

“Hayden?”  Vance asked.

“I thought – I thought I felt someone grab me,” Hayden admitted, finally turning towards his brother.  “But nevermind, let’s see if we can’t get that started.  You think if we get the water out – ?”

He didn’t get a chance to finish as another massive wave crashed down on them.  They both managed to hang on this time, looking drenched and half frozen, but the boat wasn’t going to hold out much longer.  The engine was shaking, looking like another wave and it would fall off, and from underneath I could see faint cracks in the boat itself.

It was going to start leaking in there, and they had minimal time to get to safety.  I bit at one of my sharp, pointed fingernails, debating my options, before deciding I didn’t really have any.

If they both fell in, I might not be able to get both of them to shore.  In theory, I could just grab them both and swim with them, but one could never fully predict how drowning people might respond to being grabbed, and I probably couldn’t pull both of them to safety if they weren’t cooperative about it.  The boat didn’t have long, but I could probably push it to one of the tiny outer islands where there was a cave they could take shelter in.  They wouldn’t be out of the woods yet, but it should be enough to get them through the night and back to land in the morning.

My decision made, I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath before shifting my body itself.  My curves fell away, my shoulders widened, and spine lengthened until I was back in my male form, which meant more strength.  That taken care of, I swam under the boat, placed my hands along the back edge of the bottom of it, and then, sinking my nails into it just enough to ensure it wouldn’t slip out of my grasp, I gave the boat a hard shove and started swimming quickly, pushing it in another direction – towards the small island I knew about – as I did.

I could hear them yell in surprise and lose their balance, then continue yelling about what was going on, but with each flap of my tail I could feel more water enter the boat, so I kept going as fast as I dared, not enough to tear the boat apart, but almost.

But the boat was filling up too fast, about to break apart at any moment despite my best efforts, and I was pretty sure it wasn’t going to make it all the way there.  I kept going anyway, willing it to go further – when a particularly nasty wave hit the boat and ripped a hole in the bow.  In an instant, the rest of the boat began to follow.

Casting aside the remains of the boat, I grabbed the back of Hayden’s jacket again – this time with a much larger hand – and grabbed Vince’s arm with my other.  I shot forward about 100 feet, then shoved them both forward, hard, so they’d end up in the shallow waters, just a short distance from the cave.

Without stopping, I flipped and dove back down, grabbing what appeared to be a lap blanket that was floating out from the sinking remains of the boat.

I tied it around my middle then followed the twins to the shore, pulling myself out of the water and waiting for a moment as my scales vanished and were replaced by skin and legs, before hopping to my feet and storming forward.

They had stumbled into the cave but were standing in the entrance, staring at me open-mouthed, their eyes stunned.

I ignored them, brushing past them in my taller male form – almost as tall as themselves now – towards the back of the cave where I knew dry driftwood would be based on previous visits to this cave.  I chucked a few pieces into a pile and then knelt in front of it, focusing on magic.

Merfolk have elemental magic – the traditional elements, earth, fire, air, and water.  Mostly, we use water, for obvious reasons, but we do occasionally play around with earth and air.  Fire is rare for us, but I could do enough to make a spark, enough to start a fire that would keep the twins from succumbing to hypothermia given the icy water and frigid air.

I cupped my hands together, closed my eyes, then focused on fire magic.  It was reluctant to answer, giving me just a spark – but all I needed was a spark as I opened my hands, allowing the fire to find the driftwood, which it quickly began to devour.

I finally looked up at the twins, who had come a few steps closer automatically, but were still staring at me in shock.

“You’re both idiots,” I informed them, crossing my arms across my bare chest.  “You don’t go out into the ocean in weather like this!  You would have both drowned if I didn’t see you.  Now start getting off some of your wet layers before you freeze.”

I slung my dreads around and tried to squeeze out some of the water, then frowned at them when they were still just standing there, staring at me.

“Or you want to freeze to death?”  I asked them.  Hypothermia was actually a risk for humans, even if they had forgotten that.

Hayden took a cautious but shaky step towards me.  “Morgan?”  He whispered.  “Like…really Morgan?”

I sighed deeply.  No way to avoid this whole circus now.  “Yes, fine, it was me the whole time, just – obviously things are more complicated than you realized, you can see that now, right?  You weren’t supposed to find me again, certainly weren’t supposed to recognize me.  It’d be better for both of you if you just forgot about all of this – decide it’s a dream, I don’t care – and forget about me.”

“Oh no.”  Hayden started to remove his soaked jacket, his eyes still glued to me.  “Not a chance.  You owe us an explanation.”

I was about to say I didn’t owe them anything since I’d just saved their lives, but technically their lives were in danger because of me, I guess, and I probably did owe them an explanation, really.  If I owed anyone anything, I owed them some answers.

“Morgan,” Vance breathed.  Then, without warning, he stumbled forward and grabbed me in his arms.  “Morgan!”

He definitely was crying this time, and I hesitantly held him up for a moment, then, unable to completely deny my feelings, I wrapped my arms around him and hugged him back.

I’d missed them so much.  I hadn’t wanted to admit that when I saw them again but now, alone with just the two of them in this cave, cut off from the rest of the world, I closed my eyes leaned my head against him, for just a moment letting myself forget why I’d left in the first place, why it was better that they didn’t know.

Only now, I’d thrown all that out the window when I’d decided to just walk out of the water anyway, just to make sure they didn’t die of hypothermia.