Nixxia sighed as she opened her eyes and faced the white ceiling. She thought she was back at the hospital, but the scent was different.
The scent in the room was one of Luxury, freshness, and cleanliness, not the strong antiseptic scent of the hospital.
She didn't move, not because she didn't want to, but because she couldn't.
Her whole body felt like a lead container filled with iron fillings, the iron fillings shifting and grating against her bones; she felt weighed down like an anchor in the deep ocean.
She tried to move her head to the side but winced; her head hurt.
Was this overall body weakness what Neireda suggested as being human? Mermen never felt this tired and hurt, especially royal blood.
She thought her healing abilities were coming back on track; what was this indescribable fatigue?
Her stomach suddenly growled very aggressively, surprising her, another phenomenon she wasn't used to.
She wanted to speak but started coughing, for a split second, her mind went back home. She recalled how she'd be swimming freely in their castle and around it, watching the Mermen from her window, reading her books alone. She missed her tail and fins that had now been replaced by these limbs that were no use to her.
'Should I have stayed home?' She thought in regret.
However, she dowsed that idea immediately. Being human was better; maybe she'd just met the wrong set of people. If she could just leave this place and explore other parts of the human world, she was sure she'd find better humans.
She didn't like the people she'd met so far, they were just like her father and Pelagius.
Her heart jumped into her tummy when she heard the door slowly opening; she knew they'd come for her again.
They kept asking her who she was. She thought saying her name was enough, but it seemed like it wasn't. She couldn't tell them she was a Merman, but she could tell them the name of her kingdom; maybe they'd leave her alone if she told them.
She heard the quiet footsteps walking closer to her bed, and her nose immediately took in Vernon's scent; it was a mix of sandalwood and vetiver: Warm, earthy, smoky, and irresistibly smooth.
There were other scents she could identify, and she realized that Vernon wasn't alone.
"She's awake, Boss," A voice spoke beside Nixxia's bed.
"Get her out," Nixxia heard Vernon's cold command.
"Yes, boss," Another voice replied.
Nixxia suddenly saw two unfamiliar faces staring down at her and before she knew it, she was roughly pulled to the hard floor.
She could only grunt quietly, too tired and weak to make a proper sound.
She was pulled over to kneel in front of Vernon's tall figure, The men stood beside her as if ready to pounce on her if she dared to attack their boss.
"Are you ready to speak?" Vernon questioned, looking down at Nixxia's hunched figure.
He could see how unstable Nixxia was getting, and that was exactly what she wanted: to make her weak and vulnerable.
"Yes..." Nixxia answered, keeping her answers short.
Vernon smirked, 'Seems like you're not that good at pretending, after all,' he scoffed.
"Then, tell me..." Vernon thought of words to use to make Nixxia understand his question.
"How did you appear on my property, the water?" He questioned.
Nixxia heard water and knew they were talking of the beach which she had crawled from.
"From my kingdom, Tidalonia," She answered.
Vernon clenched his jaws. he looked to one of his men and ordered, "Browse that."
"Yes, Boss," The guard replied and put his phone to use immediately.
Nixxia stared at Vernon as he lightened a cigarette, the wispy, winding paths of smoke rising from his lit cigarette.
The moment the smoke trails reached Nixxia's nose, she went into a coughing fit, causing Vernon to pause and stare at her.
"Boss, there's no such place; it doesn't exist," The bodyguard announced, distracting Vernon's thoughts from figuring out why Nixxia was suddenly coughing.
"Not a real place..." He chuckled, a dark aura hovering all over the room.
He lowered himself to a squat in front of Nixxia, blowing smoke on her face.
Nixxia choked and tried to move away from Vernon, but her chin was grabbed between Vernon's thumb and index fingers.
"Now, listen to me, Ms. Amnesia." He stretched out his hand to the bodyguard on Nixxia's left side, bringing down a gun to Nixxia's chest.
Nixxia's pulse was racing; she clenched her fists at her inability to escape her captor's grip; she knew that the object Vernon pressed against her chest was dangerous. Vernon wielded it like a weapon, and she could feel it in her bones; the weapon's effect would be brutal.
"Let go," She managed to say.
Vernon smirked. "Let go?" He cocked his gun, "Seems like you're not understanding you're situation. You're not leaving until you give me a valid response. Tell me, where the hell did you come from?! Who sent you?! What gang are you affiliated with?!" Vernon grabbed the long hair behind Nixxia's head, forcing her face up to look at him.
Hot tears brimmed in her eyes. "What is a gang? Please, let go," Nixxia cried; she didn't like it here.
"Bastard!" Vernon angrily hit the back of the gun on her head.
"Uhh!" Nixxia fell sideways to the floor, her shoulder jamming the floor.
Vernon had hit her right where she had sustained an injury when she fell from the stairs.
"You want to mess with me, right?!" He dragged her up by her hair, slapping her across her face.
"Ugh! Pl- Uhg!!" Nixxia cried.
Vernon kept hitting her, again and again and again.
"Boss, Damon is back with some information," One of his men announced.
"Damn it!" He pushed Nixxia away, frustrated.
He looked down at his wrist and felt a little satisfaction when he saw Nixxia's blood coated over it. A slow smirk played on his lips, his jaws clenching in withheld anger.
'I'm just getting started with you, Nixxia,' he thought angrily as he glared at the curled-up woman on the floor.
"Get Armani. I need him downstairs in two minutes, and I don't want her blood staining my polished tiles," Vernon huffed and stormed out of the room, slamming the door.
Nixxia was breathing; she believed she would die if she should face such cruelty again. Her toes curled as she cried, 'This wasn't the freedom I sought,' She mentally cried.
The worst thing in her situation was that she couldn't even escape; how could she? She can't walk.
She suddenly heard the bodyguards leaving her room and didn't know whether to celebrate or cry; if they left her, she might die from pain, but if they stayed, she might die from their torture; either way, she died.
She let her cry out the moment the soft click of the signified that the bodyguards had left.
She cried louder and louder; being human was a tumultuous experience for Nixxia.
She immediately stopped crying when she heard the door open once more; she silently prayed for whoever it was to spare her.
She heard a sigh beside her lying body.
"Hello, Ms. Nixxia, can I touch you?" The voice asked gently.
Nixxia didn't respond; she simply bit her lower lip to keep from making a sound.
"I'll take your silence as a yes; please brace yourself; I'm carrying you into the shower," The man's voice announced.
The next thing Nixxia felt was someone's hands under her neck and behind her knees.
She knew she was being carried, but she still didn't make a sound, too scared to do it.
She could only wonder where they were taking her this time.
"Just hold on tight, and I'll, ah, it opened," The man sighed.
"Can you sit?" The man asked Nixxia as he carried her inside the small bathroom; it only had one single overhead shower and a sink; nothing else was found inside the grey-tiled bathroom.
Nixxia noticed that the man beside her was the first to seek her consent before doing anything to her.
"Do you understand me?" The man asked gently.
Nixxia slowly nodded, looking up at the man's face for the first time. He had blue eyes just like hers, but the man's own were a darker shade than hers. His face was defined, but she could feel the calm and peaceful aura around him, unlike Vernon.
"Yes..." Nixxia replied weakly.
"Alright, so I'm going to put you down on the stool; you can release my neck whenever you're comfortable," The man said and slowly lowered Nixxia to the tall stool in front of them under the shower.
"Comfortable? I mean, good?" Armani questioned.
"Good," Nixxia nodded.
"You can call me Armani. Vernon asked me to make you look presentable, and we don't have much time; I need you to cooperate with me while I help you shower and brush. Okay?" Armani asked.
Nixxia nodded. She didn't understand every word, but Armani's urgent tone was clear...they needed to be fast. If not, Vernon would be mad.
"Okay, so I'm going to turn on the shower and - Oh!"
The moment the warm spray rained down, Nixxia's eyes widened in sheer panic. She scrambled backward, slipping, her body twisting in a desperate attempt to escape the invisible assault from above. Armani barely managed to catch her as she thrashed, her breath coming in short, panicked gasps.
"Nixxia, relax! It's just -"
But Nixxia wasn't listening. Her entire body trembled, her grip digging into Armani's arms like a lifeline.
Then, a voice cut through the chaos.
"What's going on here?"
Both of them froze.
Vernon stood in the doorway, his expression unreadable... but his eyes locked onto Nixxia with something dangerously close to suspicion.