Dare

    Coral gazed into the surface at her own reflection. It looked scared. What a stupid thing to be, she thought. There’s nothing dangerous about this game.

    She scrunched her eyes shut anyway and thrust her hand into the surface. The cries of admiration from her friends made it worth it.

    “What does it feel like?”

    “Cold,” she said. “And heavy.” There wasn’t the same kind reassuring pressure she was used to. She pulled her hand back out slowly and felt the warmth return to her skin. The others would make fun if they knew how scary it had been, so she tried not to let her relief show.

    “Do it again!”

    “No, you do it. I did it already.”

    “If you do it, I’ll do any dare you tell me to.”

    “Oh, really? Will you swim out to the shipwreck and bring something back from it?”

    Kai balked at this. “What? That’s way more dangerous than this.”

    “Yes. But you want me to do this twice. No shipwreck, no deal.”

    He probably would have said no, but there were too many others gathered for him to back down. His reputation was at stake. She watched his face close off. “Fine,” he said. “Deal.”

    Coral suppressed a victory smile and thrust her hand through the surface of the water again, this time all the way up to the shoulder. Her friends started shouting, and she thought it was because they were so impressed with her, so she grinned at them.

    But then something wrapped itself around Coral’s hand and dragged her to the surface.

    She broke through into the cold air on the other side of the water, into the harsh light. All her friends swam away in a panic. She tried to call out to them, but the freezing air burned her gills. All she could do was struggle as more hands grasped at her and pulled her into something that looked like a much smaller version of the shipwrecks she had seen in her everyday explorations.

    “Look what we have here, gentlemen,” said a gruff voice. “Looks like today wasn’t so unlucky after all. Take us back to the ship, Mister Torban. I believe the captain will be pleased to lay his eyes on his very first mermaid.”