Who Raina & Desmond What Finding a release When Late Tuesday Night Where Dorrs Pond Rating PG Status Completed.
"Are you out of your mind?"
Morgan Maris was a very head strong mermaid. She tended to side with her father and refused to step foot into water any more than was required to keep her clean every day. She had long red hair that only seemed to help the green in her eyes shine all the brighter. From the day she had been born, she always seemed to have all of her affairs in order. From the moment she let out her triumphant scream to announce her arrival into the world, she had planned on a long life that was full of meaning and dreams. She knew that she wanted to be a teacher and had worked hard throughout college so she could easily graduate the top of her class and work at any school she set her heart on. The Christian Apostolic Elementary School had become that place from the moment she had set her eyes on the luscious greenery of it's surroundings.
She was an excellent third grade teacher with a class full of students who loved her more than anything. She was strong and eternally patient with all of her students. Shortly into her first year working at the school, she had met a man named Logan Pritchert. He was the local authority for their town and had grown up there. Everyone knew him and his family, and when he set his sights on the young mermaid, he made a vow that he would marry her one day. Morgan had, of course, turned him down a thousand times. But Logan was persistent throughout the years until he finally proved to her that he was the one for her. They married in the Spring of two thousand and two.
Life had been amazing for Morgan that year, and yet equally heart breaking. She married Logan and shortly into the school year, she discovered that she was carrying what would be their first born daughter. Morgan had been almost made for the purpose, to be a mother and an educator. She and Logan had been happy for months until shortly into the fifth one when she went to her doctor's appointment with the complaint of cramps and was told that the doctor could not find a heart beat for her child. More testing would have the young couple discovering their child had died in the womb. It was horrible for Morgan, yet she attempted to believe that somehow her dream of bearing a child would come true.
Raina remembered what it felt like to be a young girl and to listen to her older sister's wavering voice as she tried to convince both of them that her God would not have given her this desire to have children if she weren't meant to bear them. She would swear up and down that it was about having faith and that one day God would give her the child she so longed for. The years had slowly passed and Raina had been the only one to question her sister's judgments. Maybe Morgan wasn't meant to bear her own children, instead to raised the unwanted ones of others. For Raina, it had never seemed to be something unusual. She knew what it felt like to be unwanted by the community based on her species. If she could take in the children of other unwanted families, why wouldn't she? It had actually been part of her plan for years, to raise orphans and show them that not only were they wrong when they thought they were unwanted.. but they were wanted so deeply that even a stranger, someone without a single blood relation to them, needed to be a part of their lives.
Morgan had other thoughts, however. She wanted her own children and she and Logan tried for years.
It was two years ago that they went through a horrible phase. Morgan had become pregnant seven times that year, and each of those times, she miscarried. The doctor's had no reasoning for it but she was advised to take a break for awhile. The eldest Maris sister didn't want to do that, and neither did her husband.
Raina stood now, in front of her sister who had finally gotten through the first two months of a pregnancy without a miscarriage. In fact, she had done so well that her child was growing amazingly well in Morgan's belly. She was, at this point, already seven months pregnant. Two more months and they would finally get to meet their miracle child, a daughter that Morgan wished to name Faith as a reference to all the faith she'd had through the years to lead her to this point. Raina had been so excited to see the rounded belly of her older sister. It came with a smile on her sister's face that she hadn't seen for years. But it wasn't a smile that she saw now. Far from. Instead, the horrible scowl made Raina fear for that child if she ever did anything wrong.
"No, Morgan. I am not out of my--"
Morgan hardly gave her a moment to finish speaking before she threw her hands in the air. "Of course you must be! I should get you to a doctor so he can hear all the crazy things that are coming out of your mouth."
"They aren't crazy thin--"
"Of course they are!" The elder Maris screamed as she started to pace back and forth. "I refuse to believe it. Tell me you're under some kind of spell. At least that I could understand. Anything but my baby sister just being stupid enough to trust one of those lifeless, blood sucking, pieces of--"
"Hey." Raina pointed to stop Morgan mid-sentence. "You don't even know him. He's not like that. And of course I'm not under a spell. He isn't the type of person to do that." Raina insisted. She had been wanting to have a sweet sisterly bonding moment to talk about the guy that Raina had been unable to get out of her head. What she hadn't known was that Morgan had such horrible opinions of anything that drank blood. Raina didn't want to hold that against her because she had been the same way.. until she had met Desmond Mangas. Not every creature had been like the one who had attacked her so long ago. He was different, and she could feel herself becoming addicted.
Morgan closed the distance between she and her sister, putting her hands on Raina's shoulders. "Rain.. that's where you're getting this all messed up. He isn't a person at all. He's a blood sucking leech. You need to stay away from him."
"You know nothing about him, Morgan. I don't want to argue about this," She says as she lets out a low sigh. "I didn't tell you so you could freak out."
"What about your attack?"
Raina had been hoping Morgan wouldn't bring that up. "He was a vampire. Desmond's a dhampir.. and he's not like most people."
Under her breath, Morgan grumbled, "He's not like any people."
"Okay, you need to stop." Raina insisted, raising her hands to signify that she was completely done. "I didn't tell you this so you could start ragging on him. Whether you believe me or not, Desmond is a good guy. Yes, he has skeletons in his closet and yes, I hope he feels he can share them with me some day. No, he hasn't tried to hurt me and Yes, I'm sure he won't ever hurt me. He worries about it enough to drive me crazy and I know he won't do anything unless he knows I'm okay with it. I've been there, Morgan," Raina hissed, walking towards her sister once she started to move away. "I used to think the way you do, that he was just like all other blood suckers. But he's not. We've been the wrong ones here, and I really want you to at least try to trust me on this.. because I would love to talk to my big sister about this."
Morgan was exacerbated and just shook her head, "I'm sorry little sister, you're going to have to call Iris if you want understanding on this, because you aren't getting it from me.. and quite frankly, this makes me completely sick." She walked over to the table and grabbed her purse from it, rubbing one palm lovingly across her swollen belly. "I would have expected this from anyone but you, Raina. I'm sorry, I really am. I hope you come to your senses because until then, I just.. I can't talk to you. And I certainly can't allow my child around someone who has such a horrible sense of right and wrong."
"Morgan.." Raina pleaded, but her sister just shook her head.
She repeated once more, "I'm sorry. I just can't look at you right now." And like that, she was gone.
Raina opened her eyes and found herself laying back on the same large rock on the coast of Dorrs Pond that she always loved resting on. It was perfectly made for relaxing like this. The sky was bright, but Raina wished it had been raining. She longed for the sound of rolling thunder inside gray clouds, and angry drops falling from the sky. But it seemed today that nature was being rebellious because even as night started to fall, the sky remained clear. It went from a crystal blue to almost black in what seemed like the blink of an eye. Raina had refused to move.
Maybe it wasn't even a refusal. At this point, she wasn't even completely sure she could move. Her own body seemed to rebel against her as well, so she just lay against the rock. While the sensation of cold did not affect her, she could tell when the ground changed from warm to cool. But even that didn't move her.
She had been gone from school for nearly nine days. There was work to catch up on but she hardly worried about that in the least. That would be simple enough. That had been, in fact, why she had come out to the Pond in the first place. It usually seemed that sitting here, beside the water, she could focus. She had planned on coming here for just that purpose many hours earlier but nothing more had come of it than this comfortable spot on the rock. She listened to the lapping water and thought about the note she had left for Desmond on his dorm room door.
Desmond,
I feel like
No, that hadn't been a good way to start it.
Desmond,
Something horrible happened last week and
No, that wasn't right either. Frustrated and completely at a loss, she settled for something simpler.
Desmond,
I wish I could talk to you.
If you have a chance, I'll be at the place we first met.
Raina
That had been easy enough. And the truth was that she couldn't stop thinking about the week that had led her to this moment. She felt like she had been frozen in a block of ice that pressed against her so strongly that she could hardly breathe. She wanted to scream but didn't seem to have the energy. Her eyes followed the sky as small spots of light began to dot it's darkness. The stars lit up the clear sky and they only seemed to poke fun of the way she felt. She wanted darkness, but at the same time, she craved the ability to feel again.