Chapter Text
The sunlight bathed Marella’s skin so strongly that she could already feel the freckles popping up from underneath her skin. The shock of the water as it lapped against her legs made her freeze – only for a moment – before she giggled with delight and dunked her head beneath the surface. When she came up, her body swayed with the gentle beat of the waves and salt stuck to her skin, and she couldn’t help but wish she could experience it with her beautiful best friend.
The best friend, in question, stood firmly in the shifty dry grains of sand where the tide couldn’t reach, a visor shading her face so that Marella couldn’t see her eyes.
Marella waved at her.
Linh waved back.
“You should come in!” Marella yelled.
“No thanks!” Linh yelled back, before turning around to start setting up her towel and umbrella.
Marella sighed, walking back toward Linh to help her set up.
“You’re already burning,” Linh said once she got near, lightly tracing a finger on Marella’s shoulder. “I told you to wear sunscreen.”
“You worry too much,” Marella said as she cranked open the umbrella.
The relief from the sun was immediate and a breeze combined with the water on her skin made her shiver. She placed her towel right next to Linh’s before flopping down on it, bumping shoulders with her.
A few seagulls had already spotted them on the beach and were tentatively approaching their spot. Marella made half-hearted shooing motions as Linh pulled out her can of sardines that she liked to feed them.
“You really shouldn’t encourage them,” Marella said. “Remember when one stole Tam’s ice cream right out of his hand?”
Linh laughed, “I still can’t believe that happened.”
She started tossing the sardines at them and the seagulls swallowed them up whole. It didn’t take long before a large flock surrounded them, pecking at their towels and trying to hop inside the bag Linh brought. They were out of sardines and the birds were growing agitated.
“Let’s get out of here,” Marella said, grabbing Linh’s hand and pulling her off her feet.
Weaving fingers through her slender fingers, they ran through the flock of birds, leaving disgruntled squawks and flapping in their wake. Once the threat was cleared, they slowed down and gasped for breath. Linh’s lips were flushed with the same pink that tinted her cheeks, her chest rose and fell with every breath, and salty sweat stuck a strand of hair across her cheek.
“I think we almost died,” Marella said.
“A murder of seagulls,” Linh replied, letting go of her hand flopping down on the sand.
Marella’s hand twitched at the loss and she looked around nervously for any threatening squawks. She sat down next to her friend, picking up piles of the dry sand with her hands and feeling the grains slowly slip out of her grasp.
~~~
Linh sat in between Marella’s legs on the floor of her bedroom, Marella was above her on the bed, running a comb through Linh’s freshly washed hair. Linh tapped on her phone, humming, while Marella carefully parted her thick black hair. It ran through her comb like silk and Marella always liked smelling her shampoo in Linh’s hair.
“Your hair has gotten longer,” Marella commented. “It’s pretty.”
“Thanks,” Linh said.
Marella could see her cheeks tinted slightly pink like they always did when she complimented her. Marella smiled and listened to Linh sing, the familiarity of the routine: Linh in Marella’s room, Marella dying her hair – brought the steady warmth of comfort to her chest.
“What do you think Tam would say if you went blonde?” Marella asked.
Linh giggled, “He’d have a heart attack and say that you’re a bad influence.”
“You’d look pretty blonde,” Marella said without thinking.
“I’d look like you,” Linh’s steady silver eyes met Marella’s and she felt her heart skip a beat. Her eyes darted down to Linh’s pretty pink lips.
Linh turned away, “I think I’m gonna stick with the silver tips though. For tradition.”
They finished the rest of the hair dying session in silence, but Marella couldn’t stop thinking about the way Linh had looked at her.
~~~
It was hot and dark and Marella left her house to go for a late night walk at the beach. The waves crashed mercilessly against the sand and the night sky painted the water black. It was the type of night where the water felt like it had a pulse, it was waiting for the right moment to suck you inside and never spit you out.
Marella couldn’t stop thinking about Linh. She always thought about Linh, but now she realized that she couldn’t stop thinking about her. She wondered about her health, her mood, she wondered if she was eating well. She wasn’t allowed to wonder what Linh looked like underneath the flowy blouses and long skirts she wore – or what her lips felt and tasted like – so she didn’t. She thought about other things: the way that Linh’s hair fell in a gentle wave, perfectly framing her face. The way that Linh’s neck gracefully swooped into her shoulder, her collarbone slightly showing. The way that Linh’s mouth moved when she spoke Marella’s name, the way that the last syllable sometimes sounded like the start to a song.
Marella only stopped thinking about Linh when the sand gave way and something sharp slid into her foot. She stopped to examine it, finding a piece of glass sticking out of her skin, blood pooling across her skin and dripping onto the sand.
She ripped it out – hissing in pain – and heard a voice close to her shoulder.
“Are you ok?”
It was Linh. Her dark hair matched the waves of the sea, silver tips flashing like lights glinting off the surface. Marella couldn’t see where she was looking, the moonlight shone on the smooth eyeballs.
“What are you doing here? You said you were going to bed hours ago,” Marella asked.
“I like coming here to think,” Linh said, looking toward the sea. “I was thinking about going for a swim.”
“It’s like – actually freezing right now. Also, not to mention, super dangerous. Why don’t we just go tomorrow?”
“You can go. I’m going to stay, I just feel like it needs me – you know?”
“What needs you?” Marella followed Linh’s gaze. “The ocean?”
Linh didn’t respond, just stood with her arms wrapped around her torso and eyes locked on the horizon. Marella left.
Linh didn’t come home.
Marella knew that Linh wasn’t going to come back because Marella had left her on the beach. She’d gone home, bandaged her foot, and went right back outside after only a few moments' consideration, kicking herself for leaving Linh alone like that.
She’d marched through the beach, screaming Linh’s name until she was hoarse. The waves on the beach crashed into the sand, reaching out further and further up the beach before greedily pulling everything that wasn’t attached into the roiling water.
She’d scoured the beach, checking each of the spots that she and Linh liked to frequent, rocks in the sand pressing bruises into the bottom of her feet. It felt like it had been hours and the tide was pulling back when she gave up, thinking Linh must have gone back home to bed. She started trudging home in the hard, wet sand. It’d only been a few minutes when she tripped over something sticking out of the sand. Glancing back, she saw a pale human foot, toes splayed out and skin wrinkled from the water.
Marella screamed, scrambling backwards. The water washed up against the foot, making it wiggle as if it were waving at her. There was a body in front of her, half buried underneath the sand. It was laying flat on its back, peacefully as if it had just gone to sleep. The body’s hair was stark black, with silver tips glinting softly in the moonlight.
~~~
Marella knew Linh like the way seasalt stuck to skin. Growing up only two houses apart and being the only two girls their own age, it was natural that they fell in together. When they lost their baby teeth at the same time, they put each other’s tooth under the other’s pillow to see if the tooth fairy would get confused, Marella helped Linh dye the tips of her hair white every month so she always found long, black hairs tangled in her brush full of blonde, and Linh painted Marella’s nails red to stop her from biting them down to the nubs.
That was why when Marella found Linh’s body half buried in sand, hair pulled back in streams by the waves toward the water, she knew to walk away.
She walked back home and went straight to bed, sand from her feet falling onto the covers as she pulled it over herself. Her cotton blanket was itchy against her legs and it was too hot to fall asleep. Her curtains were drawn against the window and the streetlights seeping through cast shadows against her wall.
She shifted, restless, when she noticed her bedroom door hadn’t closed all the way. She was too tired to close it, so she instead closed her eyes. The sound of dripping water made her open her eyes a few moments later. Peering into the dark, she saw her door open a few more inches.
Marella frowned. It wasn’t uncommon for her door to open in the middle of the night, but it usually didn’t open more than a few inches. Now it was swung halfway open, enough that a person could fit through.
She gripped her blankets tighter, her heart beating so hard she could hear it in her ears. Her mouth was dry and she didn’t dare move her gaze around the room — not wanting to know what she would find.
The sound of dripping water continued, louder now as if it were drawing closer to her. She closed her eyes, hoping this would all go away and maybe it was a dream that she could wake up from. She clenched and unclenched her hand, trying to calm herself down.
Her hand closed around something fleshy and cold.
Marella opened her mouth to scream but something covered her mouth, solid around her skin but slipping into her mouth like liquid, sealing her mouth shut and preventing her from screaming.
“It’s me,” a voice hissed in her ear.
Marella turned her eyes frantically to the side, but all she could see was a dark figure sitting on her bed next to her. She felt it stroke the side of her face. Marella closed her eyes.
“You’re not real,” she whispered.
The thing her hand had a hold of slipped out of her grasp, leaving a wet chill in her bones. When Marella opened her eyes after a few minutes of silence, there was nothing there.
~~~
Linh was at school that day, looking as pretty and perfect as she always did, not like she had been left dead on the beach by her best friend for the crabs and vultures to pick away at her skin. Marella was late to class, so she hadn’t had a chance to speak to her yet, just stare from her seat next to her. She must have been dreaming last night.
“Linh?” their teacher paused at the front of the classroom.
Linh was tracing bubbles onto her notepad, dragging the pen into increasingly larger and larger circles.
“Linh,” Marella hissed. “Ms. Alina is asking you a question.”
Linh blinked at her, “Oh.”
She turned toward the front of the room, “What was the question?”
Ms. Alina repeated the questions and Linh shrugged.
Stina and a few other girls snickered at the front of their class. They already stuck out enough at school, with their out of date clothes and being the only out of towners, this didn’t help. Marella wrote down the answer on a note and slid it over.
“Is it glucose?” Linh finally said.
“Correct, Linh. Though next time, I’d appreciate it if you could answer the question without help from your classmates.”
The girls at the front snickered again and Marella curled up her fists, feeling hot embarrassment flush over her neck.
“Marella was just trying to help, Ms. Alina,” Linh said, giving Marella an appreciative look.
Marella glanced at Linh, it was unusual for her to talk back to a teacher. It was usually Tam defending her, but he was sick that day.
“They can’t help it, Ms. Alina. They didn’t learn these things from where they came from,” Stina said.
The rest of the day passed like it usually did and Marella felt a sense of exhausted relief once the final bell rang. She waited by her usual spot for Linh before they walked to the bus stop together. She had her earbuds in so she didn’t notice when Stina approached her until it was too late.
“Where’s your little girlfriend?” Stina asked. “She’s been extra weird lately.”
“She’s not,” Marella said.
“You’re telling me you really haven’t noticed? Wow, I thought you guys were friends.”
“I’m surprised you have friends, with a personality as shitty as yours,” Marella snapped.
“Hey,” Linh finally came up to them, looking around at Marella and Stina. “What’s up?”
“Finally got your head screwed on straight?” Stina said.
“Ignore her,” Marella said. “She’s just sad her parents don’t love her.”
“At least my parents aren’t locked up in the mental hospital,” Stina sneered.
Marella froze and Linh stepped forward and slapped her, Stina collapsed onto the ground. Linh grabbed her hand and pulled her away.
“Are you ok?” Linh asked after they were further away from the school.
Marella’s heartbeat had slowed down and the walk and grip of Linh’s hand helped calm her.
“Yeah, I think so,” she said.
“Stina’s such a bitch.”
Marella snorted, “Yeah, she is.”
Marella looked at Linh out of the side of her eye, a shadow was cast across her face from the sun so she couldn’t see the expression that Linh was wearing.
They spent the rest of the trip home in silence, save for the steady thump of their footsteps. They arrived at Marella’s house so she made her way up to the front door. She turned the handle, then paused for a moment. The weight of the gaze from the girl behind her prickled her neck and for a moment she was too petrified to see what was standing behind her.
“Linh?”
“Yeah?” she answered.
“Stina called us girlfriends today.”
A pause.
“Did you like that she did that?” it was Linh’s voice, in a tone Marella hadn’t heard before.
“We’re not.”
“Why?”
Marella’s knuckles were nearly white with how tightly she gripped the door handle.
Because it’s wrong. Because it’s not allowed. Because I like you too much to ruin everything.
She wanted to turn around, hold Linh’s hands and confess. She wanted to apologize for leaving her at the beach, for all the times she pushed her away, for all the things she left unsaid. Guilt crept its way up her chest, filling her esophagus and making her feel lightheaded.
Something cold touched Marella’s neck – Linh’s fingers.
“I think you’d make a good girlfriend,” her voice was soft.
“Do you like me?” Marella asked.
Words she thought she would never hear came out of Linh’s mouth, “I like you so much.”
Something that tasted like grief broke in Marella’s chest, filling her mouth with the taste of unshed tears. She managed to turn, to face the creature with her friend’s face, voice. They were nearly touching noses, Linh’s eyes were crinkled in a smile that she didn’t recognize.
Marella stared at Linh like she’d never see her again, repeated the words over and over again so that they’d be burned into her brain. She stared at Linh’s lips, never wanting something so badly it hurt. Her beautiful best friend stood in front of her, staring at her like she’d never let herself look at her before.
Fuck it.
“Do you want to come inside?”
Linh nodded and Marella grabbed her cold hand, pulling her inside and into her room where she closed the door. She pressed her pretty friend’s body against the door with her own, she only waited for the slightest nod before she crashed her lips into hers.
The kiss was terrible. Linh’s face and lips were cold, those pretty lips of her so salty she nearly gagged. The momentary revulsion only made her wrap her hands wrapped in Linh’s black hair, holding the back of her head and holding her closer. She tongued Linh’s closed mouth and heard her whimper in response, mouth opening. Marella tasted the ocean inside her mouth and hoped she could bring a bit of life back inside her body.
They kissed until the corners of her eyes itched and her lips were rubbed raw and nearly bleeding. She kissed her with her eyes open so that she could see what Linh looked like when she was completely hers.
It was dark before they pulled apart, Marella gasping and Linh holding her – steady as ever. As Marella laid against her chest on the floor, Linh’s hands running soothingly down her back, all she could hear was her own heartbeat reverberating through her chest.
~~~
The next morning, Marella woke alone in her bed to a sudden, violent itch on the sides of her neck. No matter how much she scratched, the itch persisted, strange, smooth lumps on top of her skin. It wasn’t until she looked in the mirror and shrieked that she realized what had happened.
Tiny, pink scales had grown onto the sides of her neck.
“WHAT THE FUCK?”
Marella dug into her skin, using her nails this time to try and peel them out. She ripped one out, feeling like she was ripping one of her nails out of her fingers, and blood gushed warm down her neck. Tears pricked at her eyes. Was this her punishment? Was this what she got for kissing her best friend?
She placed bandaids over her neck and left for school like normal as to not worry her dad. She went to the bus stop where she and Linh always waited, then kept walking. She saw Linh arrive, looking around for her, then get on the bus once it arrived. Once it had been well after her dad had left for work, she circled back and went straight back to the bathroom.
Where she had mangled her neck was a bloody, gruesome mess. There were too many scales for her to remove, and the texture too different from her skin to cover with concealer. Worse, the pain was fading and they itched nearly so badly that Marella nearly considered rubbing her neck against the wall like a deer.
Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.
Marella couldn’t breath and her body wasn’t her own. A knock at the door distracted her. She was prepared to ignore it when she heard a familiar voice call out “Hello?”
She had left the door unlocked. She placed the bandages carefully back over her neck, digging her nails into her palms as a distraction, and made her way to the entryway.
“Marella? Are you ok?”
It was Linh, looking ordinary and concerned with her backpack still over both of her shoulders.
“What are you doing here?”
“When I saw you weren’t at school I got worried and came back.”
Marella looked at her, not sure if she felt relieved or concerned.
“Your neck, it’s bleeding.”
Linh moved closer, touching Marella’s bandages gently.
“Let me see.”
“No, I don’t want you to see,” Marella said.
“It’s ok,” Linh said. “I have them too.”
She unbuttoned the top part of her shirt and Marella looked away, feeling her face flush red.
“You can look.”
Marella stared intently at the pile of unwashed dishes in the sink, “I can’t.”
“Look,” Linh used one hand to turn Marella’s face toward her.
Marella looked. Linh’s shirt had slipped down over her shoulder, revealing flaps of skin that rose and fell right over her breast. Gills. Linh grabbed her hand and gently brought it over so that Marella could feel the skin fluttering over the palm of her hands.
“You can touch.”
Marella felt faint, her vision spotty and her stomach roiled. She barely made it back to the bathroom before she threw up into the toilet. Linh followed her inside, rubbing her back over the toilet and holding back her hair.
When she was done, she sat exhausted at the base of the toilet. Her neck itched, her throat burned, and she was exhausted. She rubbed at the bandages, silent tears rolling down her cheeks.
“What’s happening to me?” Marella whispered.
Linh didn’t say anything
“It hurts,” Marella choked out.
“Let me help,” Linh said.
She gently peeled the bandages off Marella’s neck and turned on the faucet. Cupping the running water in her hands, she brought it up and trickled it down Marella’s neck. The relief was instantaneous and loud - like the audio cutting out in the middle of a concert.
“Better?” Linh asked.
“Better.”
~~~
Tam stopped her the next day after she got back home from school. It was the weekend and Linh was away doing something.
“We need to talk,” he said once she opened the door.
Marella rubbed at her neck nervously and stepped aside to let him in.
“Tell me what’s going on with Linh.”
Tam was intense and serious, like he always was when it came to his sister. Marella felt the bandages on the sides of her neck shift as she swallowed, wondering how much she could tell him.
“She’s been a little different lately,” Marella started.
“Do you think I’m dumb?” Tam said. “I know you know what’s going on. She’s always at your place, and before this all started happening she went to look for you at the beach.”
“Oh,” Marella’s heart sank. “I–”
She choked on her words while Tam stared at her, waiting for her to speak.
“Something happened at the beach,” Marella said.
“Like what?”
“She – I don’t know how to say this – I found her on the beach.”
“Okay…” Tam said. “What do you mean found her?”
“She’s wasn’t–” Marella’s throat dried again.
Had she really been ok with something else living in Linh’s body? What about her brother, who’d obviously notice something was off?
“I just want my sister back,” Tam said. “Tell me how to get her back."
“I can’t,” Marella said. “She’s gone.”
“What do you mean gone? Where’d she go?”
“She’s dead Tam. I don’t know how it happened, but I found her dead at the beach. I don’t know how’s she back, but whatever it is it’s not her.”
“She’s dead,” Tam mumbled. His face had gone ashy, eyes unfocused. “And you – what – just left her there at the beach?”
Tears burst into Marella’s eyes – all the guilt she’d been hiding away resurfacing.
“I– I was going to come back. I didn’t think it was real – I didn’t want it to be her.”
“You were supposed to be her best friend,” Tam’s voice cracked. “She loved you.”
“We can fix this,” Marella said. “We can bring her back.”
“I don’t think you can,” Tam said. “I never want to see you again.”
Tam left Marella alone in an empty house.
~~~
Linh came over a few hours later so that Marella could touch up her silver tips. She didn’t mention anything about Tam, so Marella hoped that he hadn’t said anything about their conversation earlier. Linh went to Marella’s bathroom to wash her hair so Marella sat anxiously on her bed.
Nearly an hour passed and Linh still hadn’t come out. She sat, restlessly tapping her fingers against the blanket before deciding to go knock on the bathroom door.
She rapped on the wooden door with her fist three times and waited, there was no response.
“Linh?” she called out, hesitantly.
Still no response.
“Are you ok?”
Silence.
Marella, frowned, beginning to worry. Had Linh slipped and hit her head? Had something happened?
“Linh, I’m coming in in the next ten seconds unless you say something.”
Marella counted to twenty before slowly opening the bathroom door. She didn’t hear Linh say anything, so she opened the door and stepped through before freezing in her tracks.
Linh was in the bathtub – what was left of her, at least.
Marella could recognize her long tendrils of black hair, floating around the surface of the water. Nothing of her face was left, aside from eyes twitching around in the water, like inflatable toys at the pool. From there, she could see the skin of her neck, though it was translucent in the way rice paper is in water. When she lifted a hand out of the bath, it appeared more like water than flesh, bubbling and changing shape ever so slightly.
Marella screamed, running out of the bathroom. She barely made it into the hall before she threw up on the floor. The world spun and Linh was gone and everything was ruined.
She lay there for seconds or minutes or hours before she could finally breathe again.
“I need to call Tam.
He didn’t answer, but a few minutes later he showed up breathless at Marella’s door.
“Where is she?”
Marella wordlessly led him to the bathroom. Linh was there. Her skin was still translucent, but it was able to support her face now.
“This body – it doesn’t fit me,” she gasped out.
Marella could see the way Tam gulped, the way his feet hesitated, but he went to his sister nonetheless.
“Take me back to the sea.”
“That’s ok,” Tam said. “Let’s get you out of here, yeah?”
They had a brief conversation and Marella ran downstairs to find one of the wash basins so that they could move her. Carefully lifting what they could of her inside, having her head and part of her arms trailing out and dripping onto the floor, they carried her outside to the beach, leaving watery footprints in their wake.
Marella’s neck burned and her shoulder shook with silent tears streaming down her face. Tam refused to look at her, focusing only on putting one foot after the other. Gently setting the bin down, the sat next to her as the tide came in. Water crashed into them and beckoned them to follow her into the water. Marella sat grounded, hand gripping the wet sand as it pulled out from underneath her grasp.