Huit: Born of Elsewhere

The world hates me, and high school is my world. Crowded hallways buzz with talk and soft-feather touches happen all around in the crush of bodies. They shy away from my skin. There is a bubble around me, that no one dares to pop. Words fly over and around, but never land. My speech is lost in the terrible silence of being unheard.

I think I am beautiful. Eyes as big as crystalline salad bowls, the color of endless night. Skin that is opalescent and not white, but the lightest shade of blue. Bones that can be counted. Teeth that catch on my lips and make me taste the sweet, metallic flavor of myself. Legs that stretch for years; like longl twigs in autumn. Fingers that are long, like the spider's legs in my father's attic.

No mother holds me in her arms. I have a father a father who is like rock at the table, his eyes glazed with living through another day. We eat cold soup from cans. I do not like to eat. The food does not stay, and it throttles me until it is up, then out. I am hungry, and I eat, but I cannot keep it.

The town is by the sea. Teenagers voices drift over sand and sea. Surfboards line the coast like little tin soldiers against a hurricane. I like the water and the salt. I sit and watch the waves. They are purposeful waves; I smile at them. Blood trickles into my mouth, and I lick my lips.

The tide rises, the time goes, and water touches me like no other. My clothes are my prison. They're gone, and moonlight falls onto my skin. It glows blue. A voice calls out from behind me on the sand. It is harsh and threatening. My feet slide closer towards the ocean. The voice moves closer, closer. Sharp edged and dangerous.

The sea is my home. I walk farther into its embrace. Waves buffet against me, knocking me down. I can't breath. The moon seems so far away. I am swept farther from the sand. My eyes blur and something in my chest hurts. My head feels smaller and smaller.

I feel a touch to my cheek. My eyes strain. My body limp. Lips are on my own. Dry air pours in. I breathe, and see a woman. Her hair streams all around us, it is long and glows green. Her skin is a deep blue, and she has a tail of milky white scales. I know she is my mother. She looks at me. Her eyes as big as my own. I feel a stirring in my legs, a throbbing in my chest. The water is my air. The tail is my legs.

The world loves me, and the sea is my world.