TWs: misgendering, transphobia, death, nightmares, drowning

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Grian just about felt like passing out. "You..." He blinked and huffed. "I don't believe you," he said, crossing his arms. Though he felt the exact opposite. With how beautiful, polite, and dainty Scott was, he believed it a hundred percent. He looked exactly like royalty.

Scott sighed. "Maybe that's better," he said with a small laugh. "You might turn me in for a reward if you did believe me." He laughed a little bit more like he was joking.

Grian gave an awkward smile, suddenly feeling really bad that he had said that given Scott seemed to be terrified of the whole family for that reason. "Yeah, you better sleep with one eye open, Princess," Grian said jokingly without thinking. He wanted to slap himself when Scott gave him a horrified look.

"He doesn't mean it," Martyn said, holding onto Scott's hand as Scott began to dissolve into tears. "He doesn't mean it, right, Grian?" he said, mostly to Grian, through gritted teeth.

"Oh, pfft, no," Grian said. "I don't mean it. I, uh, I don't even know why I said that." He fidgeted awkwardly. "Sorry."

Scott sniffled, his cheeks red and puffy. "It's okay."

"No, it's not okay," Martyn said, probably more disturbed by the comment than Scott was. He reached over to not-so-lightly punch Grian's arm.

"Ow."

"Why would you even think of saying that?" Martyn huffed.

Grian rolled his eyes, rubbing his arm on the spot that Martyn hit. "It was just a joke, relax," he said. "You're defending him like he's your boyfriend or something." He huffed, then paused, looking between Scott and Martyn, whose faces were both red as beets. "Are you two dating?!"

"No!" They shouted in unison, then looked at each other. "We're not?"

Scott huffed. "Well, I'm not dating a human I just met," he said, crossing his arms, though his red face kind of told otherwise. "You, uh... You don't want to date me?"

Martyn looked away. "Uhm..."

"Okay, okay, save this for when I'm not around," Grian said, waving his hands around. "I didn't mean to throw a stone in your relationship." He yawned. "Well, I'm going to bed. Night, losers."

As Grian left, Scott and Martyn looked at each other, blushed, then looked away from the other.

"I think I'm going to, uh... go to bed," Martyn said.

"Okay," Scott said awkwardly. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

They stood awkwardly, then Martyn left.

Scott wanted to scream. That was the most awkward he ever felt in his life.

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I woke up to the ship rocking back forth and people shouting on deck, and my worst fear came to mind:

My father found me.

I quickly got out of the bed Martyn made for me and ran out to the deck to find Martyn and his family fighting with the royal guards, who had somehow tracked me down. It was awful, a horrid sight, to see my guards fighting with Martyn and his family. Grian shot arrows from the bow of the ship down into the water at the sirens.

"Stop!" I shrieked, but no one seemed to hear me. "Stop, please, stop!"

I watched in terror as my father emerged from the water with hid trident, aiming it straight for Martyn.

"No..."

He threw it and it hit Martyn right in the chest, and a bolt of lighting shot down from the sky, striking him whilst he was down.

I couldn't help the scream that ripped its way out of my throat, running as fast as I could toward Martyn's scorched and lifeless body. "No, no, no, no-" I dropped to my knees and lifted up his upper body to hug close to my chest. "Oh, Martyn, I'm so sorry," I sobbed, running a hand through his burnt hair. "This is all my fault, I never should have followed you..."

"Ceelan."

I shivered at the sound of my father's voice.

"You'll return with me to the Coral Isles," he said, "and perhaps I'll spare the rest of these disgusting humans."

I looked down at Martyn's pale, cold face and thought about how he'd feel if I let the rest of his family die. So I went with my father.

"Good girl," he said to me as I walked toward him. "Let's go." He turned around and I took a deep breath before diving into the water.

Except I couldn't return to my siren form.

I struggled relentlessly as I sank and sank in the water, seaweed reaching out and grab me, wrapping around my limbs and waist like chains pulling me farther and farther down into dark waters. I couldn't see anymore, everything was pitch black, and I couldn't get any air in my lungs.

I couldn't breathe, I couldn't breathe, I couldn't-

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"Scott, breathe," Cleo said.

Scott took a big, deep breath and his shoulders slumped. He was sitting on the floor, Cleo holding his hands tightly in hers, and his cheeks were wet and warm as if he'd been crying.

"There we go," she said, brushing hair out of his face. "Just relax. Breathe in..." she took a long breath and held it for a moment, "and breathe out." She let the air go, then repeated, waiting each time for Scott to follow along until he was breathing normally. "There we go. What happened?"

Scott sniffled and shook his head. He knew he had some kind of nightmare, but he couldn't remember what it was about. "I don't know," he said softly.

Cleo sighed. "Well, try to get some sleep, okay?" she said. "If you need to, come wake me or one of the boys. Okay?"

Scott nodded.

"Okay, goodnight."

"Goodnight," Scott replied as Cleo smiled and stood up off of the floor. She waved as she walked away and Scott sighed. "Let's try this again."

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"Checkmate!" Grian shouted, standing up to do a victory dance as he beat Joel (again) at chess. "Suck on that, boat boy!"

Joel groaned. "I don't wanna do your chores," he whined. "I never should've made that bet. I always lose to you."

Grian smirked. "That's because I'm a tactical genius and you, my dear brother, have more brawn than brain," he said, making Joel furious.

I laughed to myself as Joel threw a tantrum, Grian totally unbothered by his shenanigans, whilst Martyn read to me a book. I never learnt to read because it wasn't a "royal princess's job," and it took a lot of convincing to get Martyn to read to me, but it was worth it.

The story was about this girl who lived in a dark oak forest that had an ambition for exploring, but her father never let her leave the house so she always had to go out at night. However, there were terrible, terrible monsters outside at night so she had to learn how to fend for herself whenever she left home. Eventually, she found a man she loved and snuck out to go live with him, never to be burdened again by her father. Then they lived happily ever after.

"It's a really good story," I said to Martyn, who shrugged.

"It's an old folktale," he said. "Not much real story to it." He grinned. "You know what's a really good story, though? The Colliny."

I tilted my head. "The... Colliny?"

Martyn nodded his head. "Mhm. It's about this man who has really cool ice powers that makes friends with a bunch of yetis and names them all Collin," he explained, making me confused. "It's a great story."

"That sounds... interesting," I said, trying to smile and be nice. I didn't want to hurt his feelings, but it didn't sound like a really cool story to me. "Oh, I know a good story. It's called A Poppy By Any Other Name. My friend read it to me once."

Martyn grimaced. "That sounds like a romance story."

"It is!"

"Ew."

I opened my mouth to respond, but stopped when the ship rocked to the side, an unordinarily large wave pushing against the side of it. I heard thunder crack and I looked up to see dark grey clouds swirling in the sky above us.

"Ceelan."

I shivered hearing my father's voice call for me. I turned to see him sitting atop a tower of water, his trident in hand.

"Come back with me to the Coral Isles," he said, thunder cracking behind his voice, "and I'll spare these humans' lives."

"No," I said, standing up and facing him. "You can try to hurt them, but you'd have to go through me first."

He glared at me, then sighed. "You give me no choice." He reached his hand out and I started to move forward, gliding across the wooden deck without moving my feet.

I panicked and started to squirm, turning around to try and run in the opposite direction, but it didn't work. I kept moving closer and closer to the edge of the ship, then the railing hit my back and I flipped over the railing with the force of the impact to fall headfirst into the restless water below.

I struggled and squirmed and thrashed as I sank helplessly into the cold, dark abyss of the ocean. Seaweed wrapped around my wrists and ankles and arms and legs and waist to pull me further and further down. I couldn't breathe and I couldn't regain my siren form. I was dying and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

I couldn't breathe-

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"Scott!"

Scott screamed and sat upright in bed, frantically looking around to find himself back on the ship. Martyn was staring at Scott with concern written all over his face. "What?"

"Dude, you were screaming," the blonde boy said.

"I was?"

"Yeah. What happened? Did you have a nightmare or something?"

Scott looked down at his hands. "I don't know," he whispered. "I can't remember."

Martyn sighed. "Do you want me to stay in here whilst you try to get some more sleep?" he asked.

Scott hesitated before nodding.

"Okay. Goodnight."

Scott laid down and yawned. "Goodnight."

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I teased an upcoming story in this chapter ;]

Anyway I have a massive migraine, so I'm going to go to bed now. Goodnight!!