Merfolk: The Depths Prologue [WIP]

[MHD]

This is a prologue for a World of Darkness supplement I'm writing.

It's not finished, but my GF kinda likes how it turned out so far. Will update this post. Maybe.

It's about Merfolk in case you didn't notice. :)

---------------------------

Prologue

   I still remember the words she used to say.
   The weird pillow conversations we had.
   The way one of her eyes was slightly bigger than the other.
   Her favourite, slightly faded, purple shirt.
   Her family's odd sense of humour.
   Her sad smile as she told me it wouldn't work any more.

***

I never thought that I would ever get depressed. She changed that. I found myself just staring at her picture for hours on end. My life lost meaning, my colleagues grew worried, my health declined because I couldn't be bothered to cook some proper food for myself.
   Then the weird things started happening. I started dreaming weird things. I dreamt that I was drowning. Every night, for about a month. Always the same. I was underwater and my body was heavy as lead. I would sink and try to scream but to no avail. Then waking up, bathed in sweat. Every night more sweat. It even started having a saline odour, like the sea in summer.
   I found myself enjoying my showers a lot more. The feeling of water on my skin was mesmerizing. I started swimming, just to get more of it. My friends were impressed by how long I could hold my breath.
   I started liking fish. I had hated fish all my life but one day, the smell of fried fish met my nostrils from a small Asian-something food stand. I just had to have a meal there. Also, fish was cheap, so bonus on my budget.
   I started getting worried when my sight deteriorated. I didn't have money for glasses, but a friend with rich parents gave me the money and said I could pay him back when I felt I was economically comfortable.
   Then my hair started falling out.
   One day I noticed four slits on each side of my neck.

***

 “You're obviously new to this kind of thing,” he said.
I stared at him. The big burly man sitting opposite of me. No one in the room but the bartender seemed to take notice of us, and he too had a weird... Presence.
 “We, both you an' me, an' my friend the barkeep are not exactly normal run o' the mill people.”
The room was dark, lit mostly by candles. I wondered why there wasn't any electrical light.
 “Are you listening, lad?”
 “Yes?”
 “Have you noticed those dreams you've been having about swimming or drowning?”
I didn't answer. I had dreams like that all the time.
 “That's your old memories calling you out. Your memories from the more moist part of your past.”
I couldn't make anything of what he was telling me. He took off his fur cap. There was two breathing holes on top of his forehead.
 “I see you're wearing that scarf. Covers the gills?”
 “Yeah.”
 “You tried swimming yet, son?”
 “No.”
We sat in silence for almost a minute. He took a swig of his beer and scratched the barnacles on his chin.

[MHD]

[Continued]

 “It's a world out there, of wonder and freedom. We gots out own society and the other sea dwellers call us landlubbers 'cause we tried human.”
 “Okay...”
I looked at him again. Small eyes, bluish skin, pale, enourmous hands. Built like a steamroller.
 “Why aren't people noticing you?”
 “Tha mutes? Can't see, can't hear. Only the voiced will see.”

***

Free fall. That's the closest I'll ever get to describe what it feels like to swim. Absolute freedom.

*   *   *   *   *

   Till death do us part.
   Or a divorce agent.
   Happily married for six years.
   Then he can't handle the kid.

***

I know this, it gives me a sense of deja vu. I have gone through this before, and it's almost familiar. One day I see that Elliot was like it from the start. And I'm almost relieved. Now I know why he has had such trouble sleeping. Now I get a full nights rest every night in the bathtub. Maybe I should sell my bed.

***

 “Conrad!”
I call out, through the mist on the docks.
 “Yeah, who be calling?”
 “An old friend!”
A large, almost comically stout silhouette appears in the mist.
 “Jasmine?”
 “The very same.”
 “Ai thot yeh'd settled down!”
 “I had.”
Elliot wakes on my arm and gives a squeal.
 “O'll be dammed. Yer a mother!”

***

He looks at me with a grin only a baby can give. We are where we belong, mother and son.

*   *   *   *   *

   It was in may.
   I worked at the dock.
   She was pregnant with our first child.
   But fate thought otherwise, both died in labour, she held my hand.

***

I began drinking, for what else did I have? I ate only poorly, no time to cook. I got a deal with the chief, working less for less pay, now I had no wife to feed. My skin started itching, and I bathed in the sea to relieve it. It was the only thing keeping me sane. The sea. One late sorry night at the pub I complained to the barkeep 'bout my troubles.

***

 “I'm quitting.”
I had already found another job.
 “Oh. Sorry to hear that, is it the wife?”
 “Nah, I'm past that by now.”
 “Okay then. You know you're one of the best loaders we have. Is it your back aching up?”
 “Not that either. My back's never been better.”
 “Then why are you quitting, Conrad?”
 “Going out to sea for a while.”
It wasn't exactly a lie.

***

The best years of my life. Actually creating something, instead of just the same old job. I was building the Railway.

[Virmir]

This is a cool setup.  The second part moves too quickly and fractured though.  It's just barely enough to get the point across.  Then again, I'm guessing this is all background for something larger.  Interested in seeing where this is going!